1 877.] 
Ouv Six-footed Rivals. 
435 
of the agricultural ant, of Western Texas ( Myvmica barbata ), 
seem perhaps the strongest. This species, which has been 
carefully studied by Dr. Lyncecum, for the space of twelve 
years, is, save man, the only creature which does not depend 
for its sustenance on the products of the chase or the spon- 
taneous fruits of the earth. As soon as a colony of these 
ants has become sufficiently numerous they clear a trad! of 
ground, some 4 or 5 feet in width, around their city. In 
this plot all existing plants are eradicated, all stones and 
rubbish removed, and a peculiar species of grass is sown, 
the seeds of which resemble very minute grains of rice. 
The field — for so we must call it — is carefully tended by the 
ants, kept free from weeds, and guarded against marauding 
insedts. When mature, the crop is reaped and the seeds are 
carried into the nest. If they are found to be too damp they 
are carefully carried out, laid in the sunshine till sufficiently 
dry, and then housed again. This formation of a plot of 
cleared land — or, as Dr. Lyncecum not very happily terms 
it, a pavement, is a critical point in the career of a young 
community. Any older and larger city which may lie within 
some fifty or sixty paces looks upon the step as a casus belli , 
and at once marches its armies to the attack. After a 
combat, which may be prolonged for days, Providence de- 
clares in favour of the largest battalions, and the less 
numerous community is exterminated, fighting literally to 
the last ant. Where a colony is unmolested it increases 
rapidly in population, and undertakes to lay out roads: one 
of these, from 2 to 3 inches in width, has been traced to a 
distance of 100 yards from the city. These ants are not 
very carnivorous, nor do they damage the crops of neigh- 
bouring farmers. Persons who intrude upon the “pavement” 
are bitten with great zeal, but otherwise the species may be 
regarded as harmless. One creature alone they seem to 
tolerate on their “ pavement,” — the so-called small black 
“ erratic ” ant, — which, as Dr. Lyncecum conjectures, may 
be of some use to them, and which is therefore allowed to 
build its small cities in their immediate neighbourhood. If 
it becomes too numerous, however, it is got rid of, not by 
open war, but by a course of systematic and yet apparently 
unintentional annoyance. The agricultural ants suddenly 
find that it is necessary to raise their pavement and enlarge 
the base of their city. In carrying out these alterations 
they literally bury the nests of their neighbours under heaps 
of the small pellets of soil thrown up by the prairie earth- 
worms, and continue this process till the erratic ants in 
sheer despair remove to a quieter spot. 
2 H 2 
